Wettability of Carbon-Based Materials used for Selective Aqueous Filtration Media

Polyaromatic compounds (PACs) are a common and toxic organic pollutant, which could water contaminate supplies. Therefore, finding efficient and cost-effective means for large scale selective removal of these compounds from aqueous media is paramount. This paper investigates the surface energy and wettability of three carbon-based candidates for aqueous filtration of PACs: activated carbon, single-walled carbon nanotube paper, and graphene pellets. In this study Finite Dilution Inverse Gas Chromatography (FD-IGC) was performed on the three samples to investigate surface energy heterogeneity and surface wettability. Surface polarity was determined by taking the ratio of the acid-base component with the total surface energy. Dynamic Vapor Sorption (DVS) was performed to study to relative hydrophilicity of the three samples. Together, the FD-IGC and DVS results were able to yield important information on the relative interaction of the samples surface properties and wetting behavior.